In September 1863, the Ohio politician John Bingham was at the lowest
point of his career. He had once been among the fastest-rising stars in
American politics. Nine years earlier, he was among the first group of
Republicans elected to the House of Representatives. Shortly after
arriving in Washington, he established himself as one of the leading
congressional voices against slavery. He was one of the new President
Lincoln’s most steadfast supporters and a key member of the House’s
pro-war caucus.

But things soon turned difficult. Bingham’s Ohio district was redrawn
after the 1860 census. Meanwhile, support for the war was flagging in
the North, and soldiers at the front were not allowed to vote with
absentee ballots. As a result, Bingham was drummed out of Congress
during the 1862 elections.

Despite this personal and professional setback, Bingham remained
confident about his future and of Union victory. The political views he
espoused in Congress, he believed, would triumph; though currently
unpopular, they would return to public favor in time – and with them,
his own career. He told Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase that the
“limitations of the Constitution upon the States in favor of the
personal liberty of all of the citizens of Republic black & white
[are] soon to become a great question before the people.”...